Pigeon fight: Animal rights group hopes to stop 'shoots'
TV's Bob Barker has joined an Illinois-based animal rights group to stop gun clubs in the state from staging 'shoots' using the birds as targets
Sunday, February 28, 2010
By Tom Barnes
Post-Gazette Harrisburg Bureau
HARRISBURG -- Steve Hindi went looking for cash to launch an aggressive campaign against sportsmen who shoot at live pigeons, and he found a price that was right -- $1 million, to be exact.
The tidy sum is coming from retired TV game show host Bob Barker, who lives in California but who, like the Illinois-based Mr. Hindi, is outraged at Pennsylvania "sportsmen" -- they argue that term is inaccurate when it comes to pigeon shooters -- who wound or kill the birds during events at private clubs. The shooting events are held at a club north of Philadelphia, another near Reading and perhaps others.
"These people aren't sportsmen -- they're assassins," Mr. Barker, the longtime host of "The Price Is Right" and "Truth or Consequences," said in a recent telephone interview.
"They keep it a secret when there's going to be a shoot. That should raise suspicions. Are they so ashamed of the pigeon shoots that they don't want the public to know about it? Some shooters even cover their license plates when they drive into or out of the private clubs."
A longtime advocate for animal rights, Mr. Barker recently learned about "the brutality" of pigeon shoots by talking to Mr. Hindi, who held a news conference last week at the Capitol about a new campaign to focus public attention on the shoots. Thousands of pigeons are killed or maimed at what he called "these brutal and barbaric" shoots each year, he said.
Mr. Hindi, along with officials from the Humane Society of the United States and People for Pigeons, said that as far as they can determine, Pennsylvania is the only state that still permits pigeon shoots.
He said it's hard to be absolutely sure where the shoots are held because gun clubs don't advertise the shoots, adding, "The people doing the shooting don't want people to know it's going on."
Mr. Hindi said he has "sources" who locate pigeon shoots, make note of who is entering and report back. Typically, he said, the captive birds are put into mechanical "launchers" and propelled into the air, 30 yards or so from the shooters. Sometimes the birds are shot and killed while still in the air. Or they are shot and wounded and then shot again as they flap around helplessly on the ground, he said. Sometimes larger birds, such as turkeys, are tethered to a post so they can't fly and are shot.
"It's not real hunting -- it's 'canned' hunting. A lot of times they don't even kill the birds, they just wound them and let them spend several days dying in a field or a river," Mr. Hindi said. "It's unconscionable. I look at these pigeon shooters and say, 'This is what passes for men in Pennsylvania?' "
Mr. Barker and Mr. Hindi say shooting pigeons should be considered as offensive as shooting puppies or kittens. Citizens in Pennsylvania, they argue, would never put up with people who shoot and kill helpless dogs and cats.
Mr. Hindi heads a group called SHARK, whose motto is Taking a Bite Out of Animal Abuse. Based in Illinois, the group's acronym stands for Showing Animals Respect and Kindness. SHARK tries to stop abuse of many animals, including calves and horses used in rodeos and bulls killed at bullfights, but Mr. Hindi said all of Mr. Barker's $1 million gift will be used to battle pigeon shoots.
Probably the best-known pigeon shoot was held for years in Hegins, about 60 miles northeast of Harrisburg, but that stopped a few years ago. Many people mistakenly believe because the Hegins shoot is no more, that all pigeon shoots have ended, Mr. Hindi said.
He and others, including Johnna Seeton, a Humane Society police officer who tried to arrest pigeon shooters in Berks County in 2002, have protested outside the Philadelphia Gun Club, in Bensalem, Bucks County, and at the Pike Township Sportsman's Association near Reading, where he said pigeon shoots are regularly held. Mr. Hindi has posted videos of shoots held at those clubs on a website, www.PaShame.org.
Now that he has funds, Mr. Hindi plans to buy billboards in the Philadelphia area protesting the Philadelphia Gun Club's shoots and may buy TV ads. Also, Mr. Barker has agreed to narrate a documentary about pigeon shoots, which Mr. Hindi said "will be released on the Internet and seen around the world."
A one-page website for the Philadelphia Gun Club lists no phone number. A woman at the Pike Township club, who gave her name only as "Ruth," insisted that pigeon shoots are legal "or we wouldn't be having them. We go by the rules."
Asked how many pigeon shoots are held there each year, she said, "We used to run them quite a bit years ago, but it's died down."
Mr. Hindi is demanding that district attorneys in Bucks and Berks counties, as well as Gov. Ed Rendell, Attorney General Tom Corbett and state legislators, do more to ban the shoots, including passing a bill that would make it clear that shooting pigeons is illegal.
That's a disputed point now.
Mr. Hindi insists pigeon shoots are already illegal in Pennsylvania. Law enforcement officials say he's wrong.
Bucks District Attorney Dave Heckler and John Adams, his Berks County counterpart, said a 2002 Berks County court case, which threw out arrests made by Ms. Seeton, established the legality of pigeon shoots under current law.
"It's not against the cruelty-to-animals statute or any other provision of the Pennsylvania crimes code to conduct a pigeon shoot," said Mr. Heckler, a longtime prosecutor and judge.
As far as Mr. Barker funding the pro-pigeon effort, Mr. Heckler said, "With all the human suffering I've seen in my years in the criminal justice system, I can't imagine he couldn't have found a great many ways to alleviate human suffering with that $1 million."
Mr. Hindi charged that many Pennsylvania politicians are under the thumb of the influential National Rifle Association, but Mr. Heckler and Mr. Adams said that isn't true.
"They are directing their anger to the wrong place. District attorneys don't make the law, we enforce the law," Mr. Adams said, noting that the Berks Common Pleas Court decision was upheld on appeal.
Mr. Hindi and Ms. Seeton said the current state law, Section 5511 of the crimes code regarding cruelty to animals, seems clear to them: "A person commits an offense if he wantonly or cruelly ill treats, overloads, beats (or) otherwise abuses any animal or neglects any animal as to which he has a duty of care."
Another section makes it a summary offense to "shoot, maim or kill any homing pigeon either while on flight or at rest."
But the prosecutors said the 2002 case in Berks County established that pigeon shoots are legal. Mr. Hindi is now trying to get the Legislature to enact a stiffer law. Bills have been submitted by Reps. John Maher, R-Upper St. Clair, and Gene DePasquale, D-York, which would ban the practice of launching or tethering captive birds, but so far haven't seen any progress.
Mr. Hindi has demanded that Mr. Corbett take action against pigeon shoots, but Mr. Corbett maintains that isn't part of his jurisdiction.
"This is strictly a matter for local authorities and local courts, unless the General Assembly were to change the law," said Corbett aide Nils Frederiksen.
Mr. Corbett is one of two Republican candidates for governor and has had wide leads in recent polls. So Mr. Hindi is vowing to take a "Tiger Truck" -- a large vehicle with a 100-inch TV screen affixed to the outside -- to show videos of wounded pigeons at Corbett campaign events around the state.
"I am going to make this a campaign issue for Mr. Corbett," Mr. Hindi said.
Bureau Chief Tom Barnes: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 717-787-4254.
